I usually just like to keep to myself, however if it's something serious like when religious people try to ruin everybody's rights I'll pitch in. Sadly, if Atheists leave the religious alone they'd send us back to the dark ages again. : / Gotta keep an eye on them y'know?

Bury me with my guns on, so when I reach the other side - I can show him what it feels like to die.
Bury me with my guns on, so when I'm cast out of the sky, I can shoot the devil right between the eyes.

(16-09-2012 12:12 AM)Egor Wrote: If atheism is true; if there really is no universal "should" handed down by a creator, then just keep your damn opinions to yourself. You can't argue for good and deny God, it's not rational--it's not logical. It's hot air.

So, if you can't pay my bills or kick my ass, don't tell me what I should do.

Our collective opinions about what is right and good and just are formed into civil laws that we all "should" live by until those laws are changed by the voting public.
Our laws we have on the books weren't handed down from on high.
We decided as a community what we thought were just rules for our society.
We also put in protections against a majority rules all kind of system.
Just because we have a majority opinion about a certain issue doesn't mean that the issue is made into law. We also must consider the little guy, the people who would be trampled by that law. It's why we have the freedoms and protections that we do have.

I deny all gods and the one you speak of is not good at all. Do you know how I know this ? Because I can differentiate between a good act and a non good act.
And your god is most definitely NOT good. Read your bible. Obviously you haven't.

I could pay your bills and I could kick your ass. I don't need to tell you how you should behave. The laws we have in place should give you a rational idea of what the consequences will be when you don't behave within the limits of the law.

If you want to ignore all of that, by all means, please do, then you can face the consequences.

Morality - the conscious considerations of the consequences of our actions.

You want to be a jerk - fine - then you can deal with how others will treat you based upon YOUR actions.

Insanity - doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

There is a reason why the quote in my signature is one of my favorite quotes, and that is because nothing else can so fantastically sum up the root of all of the problems facing us as human beings.

Ending fanaticism would be, without a doubt, infinitely more difficult than ending what little bit of wisdom and reason we actually have as a species.

It would seem, because of this, that if I were to use a gun, I would most definitely use it on myself.

The fact, however, that I'm still here, people like me are still here, and that societies around the world can be said to be relatively prosperous because of my very way of thinking—the use of reason and the establishment of it in society—provides extraordinary evidence to the contrary of any idea that men and women of reason, in any way at all, lack goodness and morality, and it shows the idea, one that is already completely dismantled by basic logic, to, in just another way, be utterly absurd, ignorant, stupid, and unwise.

Atheism is only the lack of belief in a deity or deities. It's a point of view that tends to be taken by rational intellects, but that isn't always the case. There is some correlation, but there are some atheists who don't rely much on reason or don't have much intellectual capabilities. Also, atheism, or relying on rationality and being intelligent, can't be said to have always been separate from fanaticism, oppression and violence; I'd argue that atheism is a lot better than theism, for the obvious reasons, but fanaticism is fanaticism, regardless of position or aim.

That being said, two points. One, atheism is in no way, shape or form a religion: it's the complete rejection of what religion is at it's very core; and morality and goodness have absolutely zero to do with religion, deities or theism. Two, atheism and atheists, as individuals or groups, do not represent a view on morality, decide or dictate what is moral or good. Individuals, atheists or otherwise, only recognize and understand what morality and goodness are and what they have to do to be moral, then they act accordingly, being either right or wrong about their conclusion of what is, or is not, moral or good, or just not caring either way. Atheists have the upper hand only because they fundamentally start with the proper basis. Atheists and theists both make silly errors in moral philosophy, but the theist begins with error, a very dangerous error.

The Paradox Of Fools And Wise Men:
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser men so full of doubts.” ― Bertrand Russell

As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

(16-09-2012 12:45 PM)LadyJane Wrote: *skips everything in this thread to ask important question*

So, then can I make my house tax free and shit? Cuz that would be helpful.

Call it a Church. Tell them Egor said it was okay.

As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.